Many non-woven and (continuous filament) spun-bonded fabrics or webs have found use in the market as substitutes for textile materials. Such webs consist of randomly laid fibers, either in the form of short staple lengths or continuous filaments, which are undrawn or only partially drawn, and have therefore not obtained their optimum strength. Conventional methods of web stretching, such as Godet-roll stretching and lateral stretching in tenter-frames, do not lend themselves to stretching of such webs. In longitudinal roll stretching a narrowing of the web occurs, the individual fibers between bonding points do not undergo molecular orientation. In lateral tenter-frame stretching, tearing at the clamps frequently destroys the web. In the case of non-woven webs made from short length staple fibers, individual fibers become separated because the stretching tension exceeds the bonding strength of the bonded cross-over points of the fibers.